Xel'dormu's Sin
This place is apart of both the Chronicle of The Dark Hand and the Arbiters of the Light narratives. "How would I describe Xel'dormu's Sin? That's not easy, you know; the place is twisted beyond the comprehension of most. However, I suppose the best way for me to generally illustrate the dimension to a non-magical scholar is like so: it's as if one of the legendary Titans themselves held large portions of both Winterspring and the Eastern Plaguelands in each hand, angrily clapped once, and then violently cast the bulk of the broken mess that remained into the darkest recesses of the Twisting Nether in disgust! Get the picture? Going off of the diary we found in Tanaris, the Dragon that made this world was extremely powerful, unbelievably so. To tear significantly large sections of land out of the Azeroths of corrupt timelines, and then merge them into one pocket dimension of your own is obviously no easy feat; thus why I suspect he had help via empowerment. Anyway, this new found land has the potential to teach us Sin'dorei much about such magical prowess. All in all, despite the vibe of the horrible place, I'm excited." ~ ''Rantherion Timerunner, Senior Reliquary Researcher'' "I've no idea what sort of a vile Dragon breed this dark monstrosity belongs to. He wields powerful Shadow magic, though, so I've concluded that he is at least somewhat unique amongst his kin. The aberration is yet to be aware of my entrance into his plane, so I've been fortunate enough to be able to observe him from a distance for a while whilst I figure-out a way to escape from this forsaken wasteland. Xel'dormu appears to be his name, and he's clearly insane. He speaks gibberish to himself constantly, and he continually self-harms; seemingly for his own pleasure. Why he dwells here is beyond me, but he does appear to be protecting something that lies within the dimension's empty city. I must know what it is; it could be my ticket out of here. Perhaps there is a chance for me to rectify my grave mistake of toying with portals." ~ ''Entry from the Pages of Melsan Shin's Diary Entitled "Xel'dormu's Insanity"'' =Description= ---- Xel'dormu's Sin: The Warped Realm (a.k.a just Xel'dormu's Sin) is a small pocket dimension that exists within the infinite expanse of the chaotic Twisting Nether. Created largely as a home by a powerful and severely crazed Dragon by the name of Xel'dormu, the dimension was literally born by the intense magical fusion of two regions, Winterspring of Kalimdor and the Eastern Plaguelands of the Eastern Kingdoms, from two separate Azeroths that belonged to different corrupt alternate timelines. Absolutely no native life exists on this plane; only the twisted souls and shades of different enemies of the ages inhabit its eerily silent landscape, placed there by the world's author to safeguard the realm from all intruders, and act as his subjects. At present, the slowly nether-decaying world has been claimed by the Thalassian State of reality's main timeline. The Magisters have classified the existence of this realm as top-secret, and have also charged its protection with an elite Blood Knight sub-faction known as the ... . The two primary roles of these Knights are as follows: to protect the dimension from external threats, and to provide security for the Thalassian officials who study there. In exchange for this service, the ... have been granted permission by the Magisters to use the warped dimension as their sub-faction's own headquarters. =History= ---- Xel'dormu's Sin's history is recorded here. Prelude: Xel'dormu's Turn and the Dragon's Sin *In Year 28, the Dragon Aspects selflessly traded their Titan Keeper-granted powers to assist their mortal allies with the final blow against Deathwing the Destroyer: formally one of their own. With the loss of their awesome magical powers, the Aspects could no longer fulfil their obligations to world, and thus the Dragons of their unique broods were set free by their leaders, granting them the ability to do what they willed with their own destinies. *Some of these dragons saw this new freedom as an absolute blessing, seizing the opportunity to explore existence, and crafting for themselves their own fates without a care for their previous charges; however, others saw their new found liberty as little more than a greater burden. One bronze dragon of the latter grouping felt completely miserable to the point of seriously contemplating suicide. To this dragon in particular, his broods' work was his identity -- his all. The loss of his kinds' weighty responsibility of maintaining the time ways, translated to him as being as good as a death sentence. This young dragon's name was Xel'dormu, and, on what was meant to be his chosen final day of life, a calm, alien voice unexpectedly entered the bronze's mind with an offer he felt helpless to mistrust or refuse. The foreign voice promised to grant the dragon the greater powers that his Aspect once held, making him in effect the new master of his brood. Purpose once more could be his... all in exchange for one thing: the retrieval of an enigmatic magical artifact from an obscure corner of Outland. Confused by his depression, and surprised by both the power felt from the voice's presence, and the fact that he did not foresee this encounter, Xel'dormu accepted. *Xel'dormu followed the voice's direction to the letter, traveling to Outland as instructed. Upon arriving at a large floating island just moments from the mainland of Netherstorm, Xel'dormu landed to search for his trader's prize; but there was nothing there to be found. The moment all four of his claws touched the ground, large tendrils sprung out from beneath the small landmass, surrounded the suspended rock's outer perimeter, before suddenly shooting directly forward to seize their prey: the foolish young dragon. Xel'dormu had been directed straight into a trap; one that would rob him whole of all that he was. From the abyss of the Twisting Nether rose the presence of a gigantic creature of the Void, and it was this horror that warped the captured bronze dragon into a awesomely powerful minion of its own ends. *Reborn as an unbelievably powerful creature of the Void, Xel'dormu was immediately tasked with both capturing powerful creatures from the time ways for corruption, and channeling all he had come to know about Azeroth and it's past into an orb for his Void masters to use for their own study. Xel'dormu, wholly under the sway of his master, complied without question; but not without testing his new powers first. Combining his greatly amplified ability to manipulate and shift between the time ways with his new Void-granted powers, Xel'dormu summoned forth two random portions of Azeroths from different failing timelines and combined them into one twisted landmass, creating for himself his own pocket-dimension to operate from. This marked the birth of the realm that would later be named by the Human Wizard Melsan Shin as Xel'dormu's Sin: The Warped Realm. Part I: The Orb of Xel'dormu and Melsan Shin's Mistake *After Xel'dormu settled into his newly-forged home, he immediately went to work towards his Void master's prescribed purpose. Stealthily, he tirelessly scoured as many of the infinite time ways as he could for worthy creatures to corrupt and subjugate for the cause. Each time he'd find a valid candidate, he'd magically capture the subject, teleport it back to his pocket dimension, and then use his great command over Shadow magic to twist the being into a powerful shadow minion of the Void. Xel'dormu named these corrupt monstrosities the Shades of Time, and, until the day that his Master called upon him for their delivery, the shades lived in his realm, acting as the corrupt dragon's subjects, worshiping him as a King and assisting him in the creation of a powerful orb that could contain all of his knowledge of the prime timeline's Azeroth. *In time, the orb, later named the Orb of Xel'dormu, was completed, and the shades numbers grew. One shade, however, was powerful enough to revert his corruption to the point of re-acquiring his free will. This shade, a former Mage of an alternate timeline's Kirin Tor, tried to escape, however, despite opening a portal and being so close to being home, the shade felt morally compelled to try and free some of his fellow prisoners before leaving. His efforts were wasted. Xel'dormu sensed the shade's awakening and returned home immediately, ending the free-thinker before he could cause any damage the ranks of his master's waiting army. The shade's portal, however, stayed open. On the other side, the shade's apprentice stood stunned by the sudden appearance the unexpected portal. Eventually consumed by curiosity, the young wizard, a Human by the name of Melsan Shin, unknowingly entered the dragon's realm. Melsan cautiously explored the alien realm, taking extra measure to avoid the attention of the horrific shades that he observed. As he did this, Xel'dormu found the open portal, closed it, and then proceeded to imbue his shades with the ability to sense and instantly dismantle any portals that were opened in the realm without Xel'dormu's consent. Melsan, having helplessly watched Xel'dormu do this, knew that he was trapped. * As time past, Melsan remained hidden, surviving on conjured food and drink, and passing his time by keeping a diary of all that he had witnessed. He identified and detailed the twisted regions of the dimension, and called the place Xel'dormu's Sin: The Warped Realm after noting that Xel'dormu was once a bronze dragon who was now abusing his command over time for own ends. Part II: The Wizard's Sacrifice and the Dragon's Fall *Eventually, the knowledge that he would most probably never be able to return home got to Melsan. No longer being able to cope with this fact, Melsan decided it was time for him to end his life; but not before trying to slay his dragon keeper. *One night, Xel'dormu returned home wounded from a fight with a group of Infinite Dragons. Melsan saw this as an extremely rare opportunity to end his keeper. Luring the Dragon to him by causing a small Arcane storm over his location, Melsan struck. After acknowledging that he was no match for Xel'dormu, Melsan purposefully jumped into the dragon's mouth, choosing to sacrifice himself by detonating within the dragon's belly. The wizard's plan worked, and Xel'dormu was destroyed, the act also stripping the dragon's subjects of many of their imbued powers, also. *With the fall of Xel'dormu, the weakened shades rapidly decayed into disarray. Most of them slipped into deeper depths of insanity and formed a cult of self sacrifice, eventually walking off the dimension's edge and falling into the Twisting Nether to appease their collectively imagined God. The shades who remained slipped into a deep slumber, simply awaiting the day when their dead King may be reborn. Xel'dormu's enigmatic Void master never came to collect his Orb. Aftermath: Kir'dormi's Burden and the Reliquary's Find *In the event that he'd died, Xel'dormu created a contingency plan for what he believed would protect his works and inspire their continuation. Kir'dormi, the corrupt dragon's estranged mate, had unknowingly been enchanted by her former lover with a subtle spell that would teleport her into Xel'dormu's Sin upon its creator's downfall. Xel'dormu's bet was that Kir'dormi's love knew no bounds, and thus, upon allowing the Shades of Time to inform her of all that had transpired, she would honour him by adopting his master, cause and corruption as her own. Xel'dormu was wrong. *Mere moments after Xel'dormu's last breath, the teleportation spell activated and Kir'dormi found herself in the hidden realm of her former mate. She was utterly horrified by what she saw. Completely oblivious as to why she had been teleported to such an abominable dimension, Kir'dormi decided to stay and investigate the warped realm for answers. After surviving the Shades of Time's constant attempts to corrupt her, the female dragon eventually stumbled upon Melsan's cave, discovering his diary, and thus how all in the dimension had come to be. Now she was terrified. She swiftly returned home, taking the diary back to Tanaris with her with the intent to seek her bronze kins council. *Upon returning home, however, he heart got the better of her. Despite his corruption, Kir'dormi did still respect her deceased mate, and thus could bring herself to be complicit in the sullying of his name. Deciding to discard the only evidence she knew of Xel'dormu's deeds, Kir'dormi buried the diary beneath the sands of Tanaris to both keep Xel'dormu's memory pure, and to protect the diary from destruction in case it was needed to battle the realm's inhabitants in the future. *Months passed. By chance, a Reliquary expedition discovered the Melsan's book and, after reading its pages, returned it to Silvermoon for study. It is in Silvermoon that magical scholars discovered that the diary had the ability to open a portal to the strange realm, and thus the Blood Elves had discovered the twisted dimension of Xel'dormu. =Trivia= ---- All other information of interest to the lore of Xel'dormu's Sin is recorded here. The Brazier and the Gatekeeper Originally, the only known way to open a portal into Xel'dormu's Sin was to read a specific passage in Melsan's Diary backwards in Common. However, once Reliquary researches did this and traveled to the pocket dimension for the first time themselves, they were able to enchant a new trigger-item to open their own portal without the use of the diary. The item they chose, a single, ancient-looking brazier within the Isle of Tribuulations in the Ghostlands, has had a combination of specific runes etched into the back of one of its legs. When one of a collection of small orbs is thrown into the center of the brazier, the runes activate, and a portal opens above. To make sure that only authorized people pass into the Warped Realm, the Thalassian State-appointed Blood Knight Lord of Xel'dorm's Sin, Knight-Lord Arrodis Lightfury, has charged a trusted ally by the name of Tiexin Sha, a highly trained Blood Elven Monk, with the role of realm gatekeeper. Tiexin has been granted the authority by Arrodis to end those who try to activate and pass through the portal into Xel'dormu's Sin without permission; and he has no qualms with utilizing this power when needed. Connection to the Shadowlands Overtime, due to the intense level of Shadow Magic used to construct Xel'dormu's Sin, a weak tear between the pocket dimension and the Shadowlands of main timeline Azeroth has materialised. Why a small tear between these two specific realities exists is unclear; but its horrific effects are evident. Often, tortured spirits sporadically pop in and out of existence, aimlessly roaming about the realm in desperation for rebirth, until hopelessly fading back to whence they came. Recently, a group of evil spirits have been powerful enough to tether themselves to Xel'dormu's Sin, allowing for the extension and stabilisation of their stay in the realm. These spirits, most of which are deceased members of the Cult of the Damned, occupy the lifeless ziggurats of the Eastern Plaguelands part of the dimension, and it is there that they spend their time harvesting as much Arcane energy as they can from the surrounding Twisting Nether. Their purposes are unknown, but the silence of the night is often broken by the chants of praise for the one these spirits simply refer to as "The Deliverer". Category:Places Category:Realms